


Work

by hondansadeensommar



Series: Multifandom Hurt/Comfort Oneshots [32]
Category: ONEUS (Band), ONEWE (Band)
Genre: Angst, Anxiety, Depression, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Injury Recovery, Mental Health Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-01-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:28:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22296355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hondansadeensommar/pseuds/hondansadeensommar
Summary: “You’re working so hard, Doongdoongie.  We know that the delays aren’t your fault, and no one is going to blame you for needing a bit more time to get back into the swing of things.”
Series: Multifandom Hurt/Comfort Oneshots [32]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1385671
Comments: 2
Kudos: 116





	Work

“You don’t _have_ to do this,” Seoho commented, rubbing small circles on Dongju’s back as their manager drove him up to the company building for the first time since their previous choreographer had attacked him.Dongju had essentially been on house arrest since being released from the hospital, except for doctor’s appointments, and after a week of rest he was ready for _something_ to do.While Dongju still wasn’t allowed to practice his vocals - the ENT that had been recommended had determined that his vocal chords needed more time to heal - he had been cleared to go back to dance rehearsals with the rest of the group as long as he felt up to it and paced himself.

“I want to dance,” Dongju replied, smiling at the older man.“I need to do this… I need to face it.”

“ _Yah_ … we need to let him do what he thinks is best,” Youngjo commented, turning around in his own seat in front of them.“Doongdoongie is going to let us know if he it’s too much, right?And manager- _hyung_ is going to be on standby to take him home if he starts to feel unwell…”

“He can’t stay away from the company building forever, _hyung_ ,” Hwanwoong added.“Besides, if there’s a problem it’s better to know sooner rather than later.Especially if there’s something that we need help to handle…”

Seoho didn’t look completely convinced by the other members’s words, but the older man simply nodded and continued rubbing small circles on Dongju’s back until the van was parked and they were all climbing out to head inside.

The company building didn’t look any different, but Dongju knew that nothing was really going to be the same once he walked inside.Their CEO had personally come by the dorm the day after he had been released from the hospital, sitting the whole group down to talk about how they would proceed.Their comeback was being pushed back a couple of weeks to give Dongju time to heal, and there were very specific changes being made to the group’s schedules to avoid having Dongju alone with anyone outside of his group members and their current management team.It had definitely helped Dongju feel a bit better about everything, knowing that their CEO was putting his safety and security above everything else.

“C’mon, Doongdoongie… I’m going to help you with the dance,” Hwanwoong commented, taking Dongju’s hand to lead him straight to the group’s new practice room.Rooms had been rearranged so that Dongju wouldn’t have to go back into the room where he had been attacked, which meant that he had no idea where they were supposed to rehearse.

“Did they move ONEWE, too?” Dongju asked, as he realized they were approaching the end of the hallway where his brother’s group had been rehearsing.

“No… they’re still in the same room as before,” Hwanwoong replied, as he opened a door directly across the hallway from the band’s rehearsal space.While the new room was slightly smaller than the space Dongju and his teammates had been using before the incident occurred, it still had plenty of space for the six of them as well as a couch on one wall and a sound system that looked as though it had recently been upgraded for them.“The company switched us with the trainees, because they had the biggest training room that wasn’t being used by one of our _sunbaes_.It’s a little smaller, but they replaced the sound system for us to make up for it.And at least this one doesn’t have any bad memories in it.”

Dongju nodded, turning to smile at the older man.“Yeah… no more bad memories.”

“C’mon… let’s go over some old stuff to warm up, and then we’ll review choreography you already know,” Hwanwoong replied, moving to drop his stuff along the wall by the sofa and change into his dance shoes.

Dongju was quick to follow suit, hoping that getting moving would help to get rid of the low hum of anxiety that had been running through his veins all morning.It wasn’t bad - nothing like the distinct _fear_ he’d felt the first time his return to the practice rooms had been mentioned - but it was enough to set Dongju on edge and make him wonder if coming back had really been such a good idea.

Dancing helped keep the anxiety in check somewhat, but by the time Hwanwoong decided they should take their first break Dongju could feel his hands starting to shake.It was quickly apparent that Hwanwoong noticed it as well, given the way the older man took the bottle of water out of Dongju’s shaking hands and pulled him into a tight hug.“Hey… it’s okay.You’re okay,” he commented softly.

“I’m sorry…” Dongju began.

“You don’t have to apologize, _aegi_ ,” Hwanwoong commented, reaching up to stroke his hair.“None of us expected that your first day back would be easy.Honestly, you’ve done better than any of us thought you would.”

“I’m just really anxious right now… I thought if I could just get started dancing, it would go away.It’s not unbearable, but I’m struggling,” Dongju replied.

“Do you need to be done for the day?” Hwanwoong asked.

Dongju shook his head.“No… no, I can stay for a while longer.”

Hwanwoong nodded, backing up so that he could look in Dongju’s eyes.“You’re sure?We can go back to the dorm…”

“I need to do this… it’s never going to get better if I don’t face it,” Dongju replied, shaking his head.“I can keep going after some more water.”

“Okay, _aegi_ ,” Hwanwoong replied, giving him another quick hug.“A couple more minutes, and then we’ll get back to it.”

Dongju nodded, taking his bottle of water as Hwanwoong handed it back to him and taking a few more sips of water.While his hands were still shaking - Dongju had a feeling that there wasn’t going to be an easy way to make that symptom of his anxiety around being in the building go away.But knowing that his _hyung_ was more than willing to pull him out of the building and take him home the moment Dongju said that he wasn’t able to take any more certainly helped.

Hwanwoong was good at making sure that Dongju didn’t get too much time to start overthinking things for the rest of the time they were working, until Keonhee came into the room to swap places with the group’s smallest dancer.“Our voice teacher wants to see you next, Hwanwoongie,” the taller male commented.“I can finish teaching Doongdoongie the rest of the dance…”

“You’ll be okay?” Hwanwoong asked, turning to face Dongju before making any move to leave the room.

“I’m okay, _hyung_ ,” Dongju replied, nodding.The anxiety hadn’t dissipated at all, but it hadn’t gotten any worse, either.While Dongju didn’t _like_ sitting with that feeling, he still didn’t feel the need to pull himself from the day’s scheduled activities yet.

“Don’t worry, Hwanwoongie… I’ll keep an eye on our _maknae_ ,” Keonhee added, shooing the smaller man out of the room.The man was back in the center of the room near Dongju a moment later, smiling at him.“How bad is the anxiety?”

“It’s bearable,” Dongju replied.“It got bad for a little while earlier, but Hwanwoong- _hyung_ helped me calm down before I panicked.”

Keonhee smiled back at him.“Do you want to keep going?” Keonhee asked.

“Yeah… yeah, I think I need to keep working,” Dongju replied, nodding. 

“Okay.Why don’t you show me what you already learned, and then we’ll figure out what we need to do next,” Keonhee commented, moving to turn the music on again.

Dongju was exhausted by the time the rest of his _hyungs_ made it to the practice room, laying down in the middle of the floor and staring up at the ceiling with Keonhee next to him cracking jokes and doing everything he could to keep Dongju’s mind from wandering into dangerous territory.But it was a good kind of exhausted - the kind that went along with hours and hours of hard work that had paid off in some kind of tangible way.And Dongju knew that he had improved significantly in the few hours he had been working with his _hyungs_.

“How’d it go?” Seoho asked, moving to sit next to Dongju so that he could play with Dongju’s hair.

“He did really well,” Keonhee commented.“I don’t think he’s going to be able to dance for much longer, though… I’m pretty sure I wore him out.”

“I don’t think I can move,” Dongju admitted, smiling slightly as Seoho stroked a hand through his hair.

“Then it’s probably a good thing that it’s time for our lunch break,” Youngjo commented, as the group’s eldest member came over to help Dongju up off the floor.Dongju’s muscles felt like Jello as he stood up, letting the older members guide him to a lounge area on one of the higher floors.He knew that they were doing their best to keep his mind occupied, especially as they walked past their old practice room and Gunhak purposely put himself between Dongju and the door so that he wouldn’t have to see it.Dongju really wasn’t sure that he _needed_ them to be so protective over him, but he certainly couldn’t say that he minded the fact that they were trying to spare him that painful memory.

“Manager- _hyung_ got some kimchi stew for you to eat for lunch,” Seoho commented, as they walked into the room where their manager was setting out various lunch boxes and cups of soup on a table for them to eat.“How is your throat feeling?”

“It’s fine,” Dongju replied.

“You should probably go home and rest after lunch,” Youngjo commented, putting his hands on Dongju’s shoulders and guiding him to sit at the table.“You’ve been working hard all morning…”

“I can stay,” Dongju replied, shaking his head.“I’m sure I’ll be fine once I’ve eaten and taken a little bit of a break…”

“Don’t push yourself, okay?” Gunhak commented, as the rest of the group sat down as well.“We all know that this isn’t easy, and no one is going to judge you if you don’t feel up to staying all day.You’ve been working hard all morning, and you’ve been out for a while.”

“I want to try and stay,” Dongju replied.“I’m okay right now, _hyung_.I think as long as I’m not getting too far into my head, I’ll be okay.I just need to stay busy.”

Gunhak nodded slowly, smiling at Dongju.“If you’re sure.”

“I’m sure.”

Their lunch was longer than usual; Dongju couldn’t help noticing that their manager wasn’t even coming into the room to hurry them up.“ _Hyungs_ … don’t we need to get back to work?” he asked softly, feeling the anxiety beginning to rise again as he realized that they weren’t really being productive with their time.“We have so much to do…”

“We’re okay, Doongdoongie,” Youngjo replied, shaking his head.“Don’t stress about the comeback, okay?The company hasn’t announced anything yet… they’re waiting to find out how long you’re going to need to heal and come back, because they don’t want to put you on hiatus again so soon…”

Dongju felt sick at the older man’s words, looking down at the floor.“So I’m holding everything up…” he began.

“Hey… the asshole that hurt you is the one responsible for things getting put on hold.Not you,” Seoho replied, taking Dongju’s hand and squeezing it gently.“The company is putting things on hold to make sure that you have time to heal properly, so that this doesn’t turn into anything more serious…”

Dongju’s hands were starting to shake again, even with Seoho holding onto one of them.“Right… I’m going to let manager- _hyung_ know that he needs to be done for the day,” Youngjo commented softly, getting up and heading out of the room.Dongju couldn’t help the sobs that began escaping him as the eldest left the room, leaning into Seoho’s side as the second oldest wrapped him into a tight hug.

“ONEWE are rehearsing right now…” Keonhee began softly.

“Please…” Seoho replied.Dongju could hear some of his _hyungs_ hurrying out of the room, leaving Dongju and Seoho alone for a few moments.“You’re okay, _aegi_ … it’s okay to cry.Just let it all out.”Dongju nodded slowly, curling closer into the other man and trying to make himself as small as possible.

“Is he okay?” a soft voice asked, as someone stroked a hand through his hair.It took Dongju longer than it should have to recognize Dongmyeong’s voice, but he was quick to move to attach himself to his twin brother instead.“Hey… it’s okay, Doongdoongie.You’re going to be okay.”

“I think he’s just overwhelmed… we were taking a longer lunch break, and he started getting stressed out about the fact that we weren’t being productive,” Seoho began.“When we tried to convince him that it was okay, because our next comeback hasn’t even been announced yet, he started stressing out and blaming himself…”

“ _Yah_ … none of this is your fault, Doongdoongie…” Dongmyeong began, squeezing him a little tighter than was really necessary.“Talk to me, okay?What’s going on in your head?”

“ _Mianhe_ …” Dongju muttered, closing his eyes.

“ _Yah_ … no way.You don’t have anything to apologize for here,” Seoho replied.“You’re working so hard, Doongdoongie.We know that the delays aren’t your fault, and no one is going to blame you for needing a bit more time to get back into the swing of things.”

“And you have to take care of yourself, Doongdoongie,” Dongmyeong added.“Your voice won’t heal if you don’t follow doctor’s orders.You _have_ to take this time off, if you want to be able to continue performing long-term.The company knows that.That’s why no one is pushing too hard… the managers and everyone else just want you to be okay.”

“Dolmaengie is right… the company wants to do the right thing, which is why there’s no rush for you to come back,” Seoho added, as Youngjo and their manager came into the room.

“Panic attack?” their manager asked, softly, as he knelt down next to Dongmyeong and Dongju.Dongju took the deepest breath he could manage, opening his eyes to look up at the man.“How are you doing right now, Dongju- _yah_?”

“I think I need to go home…” Dongju began, barely able to keep his voice stable despite the fact that he was still shaking.

“Okay… let’s get you home.Dongmyeong- _ah_ needs to stay here for his own group’s rehearsals, but I’m going to take you and the rest of your group home for the day,” the manager replied.Dongju nodded, letting go of his twin brother and slowly forcing himself to sit up.“Okay, guys… let’s clean up lunch, and then I’ll take you home.”

***

Dongju blinked a few times as he started to wake up, feeling strangely disconnected from everything around him.It was almost as though his whole body had gone numb, although he could feel Gunhak’s breath warm against the back of his neck and the way the older man curled around his back.It should have been comforting, but Dongju just didn’t feel right.

“You okay?”Dongju looked up at the sound of Seoho’s voice, letting his eyes close again as the older man stroked a hand through his hair.“You’ve been asleep most of the afternoon…”

“I don’t feel anything…” Dongju whispered, not moving.“I don’t like it, _hyung_ …”

“What do you mean?” Seoho asked, keeping a hand on Dongju’s hair.

“I’m just… numb.”Dongju really didn’t know how else to explain what was happening in his head; numb was really the only word that he could think of that even remotely made sense.“I don’t want to feel nothing, _hyung_.But that’s all that’s there…”

Seoho sighed, leaning in to rest his forehead against Dongju’s for a moment.“I’m sorry, _aegi_.I wish that there was something I could do to help you…”The elder man was quiet for a moment, before he spoke up again.“If you want, I could talk to the managers about trying to get some help…”

“I’m not crazy, _hyung_ ,” Dongju replied, shaking his head.

“Having trouble dealing with what you’ve been through does _not_ make you crazy. _Anyone_ would have a hard time after being abused by someone they were supposed to be able to trust,” Seoho reassured.“You don’t have to agree to anything long-term, okay?But at least give it a chance…”

“If it comes out…” Dongju began, opening his eyes to look up at his _hyung_.

“You have the company behind you, _aegi_ ,” Seoho reminded, stroking a hand through Dongju’s hair again.“They have multiple copies of every piece of evidence saved… at the company building, with company lawyers, with our managers.We’re all standing behind you, okay?No matter what happens, you have a huge number of people on your side through all of this.”

Dongju nodded slowly, fighting back the tears that were threatening to spill over.“ _Mianhe_ …”

“Shh… no apologies, Doongdoongie.You haven’t done anything wrong,” Seoho reassured, standing up and holding out a hand to Dongju.“Come on… let’s go get you something to eat.We need to make sure that we’re taking proper care of you.”

Dongju tried to untangle himself from Gunhak’s grasp, but the rapper was quick to tighten his grip around Dongju’s waist.“Stay…” the rapper muttered, not opening his eyes.

“ _Yah_ … he needs to eat, Gunhak- _ah_ ,” Seoho replied, prying the rapper’s arms away from Dongju’s waist.“You can smother the _maknae_ again _after_ I make sure that he has something in his stomach.”Gunhak grumbled, before letting go of Dongju and moving away just enough to let Dongju get up and be led out of the room.

“I’m really not that hungry,” Dongju commented, as Seoho guided him out of the bedroom.

“Let’s just try something, okay?You really haven’t been eating enough, and I’m worried that you’re going to start losing weight if we don’t fix that,” Seoho replied, playing with Dongju’s hair for a moment.“I don’t want to see this cause any more damage… you’ve already been hurt so much…”

“Maybe it would be better if I just went home…” Dongju began.

“Better for whom?” Seoho asked, stopping and turning so that they were face to face.Dongju could see that the older man was hurt by his words, even if Dongju couldn’t quite understand why.“Running away isn’t going to fix the scars that bastard left on you… and it sure as hell won’t help the rest of us, either.You’re our baby brother, and we love you.Surely we’ve at least gotten _that_ through to you over the last couple of years…”

“I’m holding you all back…” Dongju replied.

“To Moon understand, _aegi_.They may not know all of the details, but all they want is for you to be healthy,” Seoho reassured.“You’re still recovering from your knee injury, and now you’re having to deal with these injuries, too.You have to give yourself the time to heal... and I really do think that it would be a good idea for you to at least _try_ talking to someone about what happened…”

“I don’t want people to think I’m crazy…”

Seoho shook his head.“No one outside of the company has to know, _aegi_.Not until you’re ready to talk about it,” the elder commented, pulling Dongju into a hug.“We’re going to protect you.You’re our baby brother, and we love you.And we aren’t going to let you forget that.”

Dongju relaxed into the older man’s embrace, thankful for the friendships that they had all developed over their time together.Although he had been one of the last to join them as a trainee, Dongju still knew that his _hyungs_ cared about him as if he’d always been a part of the group.

“Is everything okay?” Youngjo asked cautiously, coming out of the kitchen and running a hand through Dongju’s hair gently.“Doongdoongie?”

“I think we’re going to talk to manager- _hyung_ about getting Dongju- _yah_ someone to talk to…” Seoho commented, continuing to simply run a hand up and down Dongju’s back as he let his head rest against Seoho’s shoulder.“He’s not doing so well… I think it’s time to ask for some help.”

“Okay… do you want me to call, or do you want to do it yourself, _aegi_?” Youngjo asked softly.

“Would you?” Dongju asked, turning to look at the older man.

Youngjo nodded.“I can do that for you, if it’ll help,” the leader replied.“You guys were going to get something to eat, right?”

“I’ll make sure he eats, if you want to make the call,” Seoho replied, gently making Dongju stand up before guiding him into the kitchen and sitting him down at the small table before turning to the stovetop and filling a bowl with some kind of soup that had already been prepared and left to simmer for a little while.

“Where are the others?” Dongju asked, as Seoho moved back to the table with the bowl and spoon.“It’s quiet…”

“Keonhee- _yah_ and Hwanwoong- _ah_ went out to run some errands… they were going to get some dinner, too, so that they wouldn’t disturb you while you were sleeping,” Seoho replied, as he went to grab a glass of water for Dongju, too.“We all thought that a nap might help you feel better, but they were having a hard time keeping it down…”

Dongju nodded, stirring the soup in his bowl around a bit as he tried to to make himself eat some of it.He really wasn’t hungry, and Dongju was a bit afraid of trying to force himself to eat.“What if I really can’t do it, _hyung_?” Dongju asked softly, staring down into the bowl.“What if I can’t go through with going to the doctor?”

“You’ve just got to take it one step at a time, _aegi_.Step one is asking for help, which you just did,” Seoho replied, gently nudging Dongju’s hand to remind him to eat.“We’re going to help you, okay?You’ve got the whole group behind you.”

“Thank you, _hyung_ ,” Dongju replied.

“Eat, okay?We can worry about what the next step is later.”


End file.
